If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Hybrid View

Money pit's rebuilt money pit

I wasn't going to make a rebuild thread, but I am bored and heavily concussed, so let's get started. The differentials were the first to go, and with the help of Craig.mitch316 I finally found some Losi differentials and bought two of them instantly. http://www.ebay.com/itm/370709252056...84.m1439.l2648 I think that seller owes you a finding fee Craig I also wanted to use the stock driveshafts so I cut the threaded end off part#5454 and filed them down on the edges to replace the output cups on the new diffs. I recently created a thread that asked for bearing sizes, you can ignore that as I was confused on where the bearings go. The Losi output cups have a 6mm shaft the connects to the spider gear via a pin that goes through a hole on the inside. No new parts needed.

Getting the Losi Cvd off was an adventure in itself. Heat everything up with a hair dryer, NOT a heat gun. I unscrewed the screw that connects the shaft to the black ring around the (rosie) pinion gear. After that is out of the way i re-heated everything with the hair dryer and a quick shot of wd-40. With the black ring clamped in a vise, being careful not to clamp the bearings, I tapped a hammer onto a flathead screwdriver on the end of the pinion opposite the teeth and it slowly came out.

Now, to trim the bulkheads. I would recommend doing this slowly (and not concussed) because I accidentally cut through the side of my first one. Stupid mistake, and I didn't even need to take any material out of there I also used a cutting wheel on major removal of material, if you do this, go slowly and small cuts and let the plastic cool or you will end up with this:

This also creates quite a mess, there is much more of this in the trash and still on the table.

Stock
Trimmed

Trimming the chasis was rather simple. You just need to take out most of the stops that weakly held the stock bulkheads in place originally. I also took a little off where the ring gear bulge is.

For the center driveshafts I ordered Kershaw designs's center dogbone kit and Dan is substituting the diff inputs for 8mm drive cups and the front shaft to the shorter silver one. That should be here in about a week or so.

I have always been a bit different than everyone else throughout my life, and my stuff reflects that, so I originally painted the motor plate and bulkhead ties red. After track sessions, bashing and a trip through soft sand dunes the paint was needing touch up and I wanted something different. A while ago I polished my motor mount, and it came out well. I decided to just go for it and do the rest of the aluminum up to 600 grit sandpaper. After all of the sanding was done, I polished it with mothers mag and aluminum. I also used a Dremel polishing wheel, but again watch the heat, polishing with a Dremel can get it VERY hot.

I did the same with the fins on the motor, because they were looking dull and they didn't shine at all anymore. I could only go the one direction on the motor, but it still came out well. Sorry about the tape, I was protecting the other polished parts.
I finally opened the transmission and it was time to replace the bearings. (5x11x4 and 6x12x4) I am using Avid bearings simply because they are $1 each and I have heard good things about them.

The stock wing lasted well, but it finally gave up on me. I found a pack of 4 proline hd wing and they were $15. All that needs to be done is drill two holes and you are done. To spread some of the force from crashes and wheelies I got 2 fender washers. The inner hole diameter is 3/16 and the outer is too big for my liking. I will look into getting something a little smaller, but hey, the were 28 cents.

That is the extent of the major changes. I still have a few things to do: lights, wires, hd diff cups, and putting it all back together,but I really like how well things have come and nothing major has gone wrong yet So far, I have spent about $150 on parts, which is quite a bit, but I shouldn't be going through ring gears every other pack.

Thank you Revoroller and craig.mitch316, without both of your threads I never would have thought about doing the diff conversion.

Nice build so far. I would of put better bearings in the trans. I just put boca yellow seal ceramics in mine. I think Craig just had bearing problems in his trans.
my boca ceramics for my losi diffs just came in Saturday too
Money pit is true I have probably 220 in bearings!

Nice build so far. I would of put better bearings in the trans. I just put boca yellow seal ceramics in mine. I think Craig just had bearing problems in his trans.
my boca ceramics for my losi diffs just came in Saturday too

That would have been a lot of money that I can't see spending right now. I will definitely try to get some extra cash and replace them as soon as I can, but wow are those expensive, even with the 15% off.

Nice one mate ...my first attempts at trimming the bulkheads for the Losi mod resulted in too much material been removed before I realised I could get away with less trimming of the bulkheads. I found that the front required a lot more removal of material than the rear.

Nice write up ...my diffs are still going strong. I will open them up again in another 3 months or so to check for wear and a general service. They are the real deal .

So you did no grinding in the rear at all. I picked up a few extra dremel bits today and a small heater! My hobby room in back is cold!

The rear needs dremeling also. I will post that picture once it warms up in the morning, but the main focus point of the removal is around the pinion of the diff. I have to squeeze the diff cases together to get the screws in, but they do go and that is the way that I want it. I have never had bulkead issues and intend to keep it that way.

Craig, thank you Even with your tips and advice I still cut through my first rear case. Once I got to the pair that I was going to put on the truck it was a breeze. 5 minutes and I was done. I think the time consuming part is testing how much material you can and can't take out. I gave myself plenty of time to learn, and also an old set of bulk's

I'll try to post more of my build since you guys seem to like these so much, I know I wanted to learn everything that I could before dropping some serious coin on these diffs. Now, that I have most of the parts, I think most everyone on here can do it as long as you have patience the tools and time. Don't rush through any part of this, that is what made me cut through the plastic.

My bearings should be here by Friday, and I have an order from tower with a Christmas gift from my parents (trakpower tk-950) and my other drive axials, wire and connectors which will be here by Tuesday. I have 10 5mm led's from ebay coming, and will wire those into my homemade servo switches, 10 of those in a summit bumper should light up the night pretty well.The heavy duty differential cups are also ordered, but all of the ebay sellers are away and won;'t be shipping until 2013. Darn people and their families Hopefully I can get something done tomorrow, I really want to drive since I am not allowed to ride motorcycles for another week, something about permanent brain damage or something like that...

So you did no grinding in the rear at all. I picked up a few extra dremel bits today and a small heater! My hobby room in back is cold!

Were you talking about the rear bulkhead or the rear portion of the bulkhead? If you were talking about the pictured one, then no. I did not need to do any grinding to there. If you were talking about the rear bulkhead, then yes I did grind it a bit.

Got more pictures today, this is the minimum amount of trimming that I could get to work.

Thanks to my brother in law, I no longer have to fill a 30 gallon air compressor to clean off the dust after running.

Now, I need someone's help. I tried to put a driveshaft on the homemade adapters, and it seems like they aren't long enough. If you look into where the screw should go you can see that part of the axial is there and blocking the hole. Do I need to use summit shafts? Maybe you can provide some insight here Craig, I may have overlooked that somewhere, but I don't think that these will work.

When I did the Losi mod I had been using Summit shafts for some time already...I've never explored the option of using stock shafts with the Losi diff. I'm not sure why it doesn't fit. Here is a comparison of the Summit shaft connected to the Losi diff compared to stock (your pic)

They could have different diameters...the Summit diff output CV drive looks smaller and seems to be a better fit with the Losi diffs in the above pics. You may need to dremel the OD smaller...IDK mate, thinking out loud .

Last edited by craig.mitch316; 12-28-2012 at 04:02 AM.
Reason: I can't spell

Thank you, I need new shafts The stocks are too thick to fit inside of the metal casing to connect to the shaft. Where the summit one goes inside the blue case, that is the problem with the stock ones. That's too bad, I just put on new shaft 3 runs ago. Time to go to the hobbyshop!

Thank you 50! I just thought of myself trying to remember where the stock shim goes... I'll go down there and swap sides right now. Good thinking Yes, I did follow Craig's thread and in fact have another tab with that on it right now. No, I don't think I shaved anything off of the rear of the bulks. I only shaved the area where the pinion gear is. I can see where it should be shaved, but I want to leave that intact to see if I can keep these bulkheads intact for a while.

That helped a little, but it did not fix it. I think I need summit shafts because of their smaller input that would fit inside of the diff case. That is the only thing that is stopping my current ones to fit. Can anyone confirm this?

Thanks, I got mine for 47 plus 4$ shipping. It was a buy it now and was the last one. I'll go to the hobbyshop and pick up their last set of long half shafts tomorrow. I also go my HD diff cup today and I am going to replace them now. I just need to file one more stub axel to complete on diff and do the other two on thursday. If I had ordered one day earlier I would have gotten them today, but now I have to wait until thursday.

Ok, so the bearings got here today and the first diff is together. The HD diff cup seems to be longer than the stock one, so it was a squeeze to fit it in the case. To grease the gears I am ditching my marine grease and going for mobile 1 synthetic. 8$ for a 1 pound can that should last a lifetime ever with all the 1:1 cars I have.

Thanks guys, I just sold my thunder t6 multi and converted xbox power supply to a friend and bought an i charger 106b+ and two 700 watt server power supplies. I don't need the second one, anyone want a steal on a pre-made power supply? The rest of my parts should be here on thursday, I forgot about the whole new year thing... Hopefully driving this Friday! I hope the weather turns around by then, right now it's rainy and hailing.

NOt too much to add, other than the summit shafts and leds got here today. Haven't done anything with the shafts because I was at my girlfriend's party for the night, but I drilled -1 1/4 inch holes for all of the mounts since the flat leds won't go into the stock holes. WOW! these things are much brighter than stocks. The bottom leds are not glued in yet, I need to see where they should be shining.
Sorry about the poor photo quality, I am tired and the lighting isn't so good. As soon as my charger gets here I will be driving, even if I have to use my motorhome as my power supply, it will happen. The only thing to stop me would be rain, so hopefully that will stay away.